Lin Yuan ordered someone to call them in, and sure enough, it was those two people, and before Lin Yuan could speak, one of them spoke: "My name is Jenningson Brown, the chairman of the Armstrong factory in the United Kingdom. ”

Another said: "My name is Dwight Lee, and I'm the chief technical consultant at the Armstrong plant in the UK. ”

The Armstrong factory was a famous military factory in this era, and the warships and guns it produced were famous far and wide, and many artillery guns were purchased from this factory in the Qing court.

A lot of weapons and equipment in Britain are purchased from the Armstrong factory, and the people who can sell arms to the government are extremely well-informed, and that Jenningson is like this, he heard about the mysterious ship from the high-level tone, and heard about the relationship between Lin Yuan and the mysterious ship, and wanted to see Lin Yuan, but Britain declared neutrality, and there were many inconvenient places to go directly, which funded the investigation team and contributed to this investigation.

An important reason for this secret visit was that they did not want to be known about their actions by competitors, and Armstrong's competitor was the famous Krupp company.

In this era, companies with advanced artillery technology have mastered advanced steelmaking technology without exception, because the performance of the steel used to make artillery directly determines how much explosive force of gunpowder the gun body can withstand.

When Jenningson heard about the mystery ship, he immediately consulted with Dwight, who was keenly aware that the length of the mystery ship was more than 300 meters, which put high demands on its structural steel, at least its yield strength was much higher than that of the steel produced in his factory.

Then they thought: if they get the skills to make this steel, then they can leave their business competitors far behind!

Lin Yuan knew their identities and probably guessed that they were here for advanced techniques, but he deliberately pretended to be confused and asked, "Do you have anything to do?" ”

Jenningsen, who has been in the business for many years, knew that he couldn't come up and talk about the mysterious ship, he said: "I heard that General Lin knows a lot about techniques, and we really want to come and talk to General Lin." ”

Lin Yuan asked, "Who did you listen to?" ”

Dwight laughed, "You built a steel mill when you were in the Ryukyus, and that's where our people heard about it. ”

Lin Yuan replied: "Oh, so that's the case, what do you want to talk to me about?" ”

Dwight asked, "I wonder how much General Lu Daolin knows about steel smelting?" ”

When Lin Yuan heard this, he thought, "It seems that I guessed correctly, I really came here for the sake of the technique." Lin Yuan knew that being modest was the best way to show off, so he said humbly: "Well, I can't talk about this, I just know a little bit of skin." ”

Science and technology, the more you learn, the more you feel that you don't know a lot of things, anyone who is ashamed to say that he knows everything is a person who knows nothing, Lin Yuan's words made Dwight believe that Lin Yuan really knows a lot of things. Dwight asked, "Can you talk about how you can improve the strength of the material?" ”

Lin Yuan said: "I'm sorry, please forgive me for not being able to answer your question, the scope of your question is too wide, there are too many types of materials, you mean metal materials?" Or is it a non-metallic material? There is also a difference in strength, you mean yield strength? Or fatigue strength? ”

Dwight actually set a trap in the question, if Lin Yuan directly answered the question rhetorically, it would mean that Lin Yuan didn't understand anything at all.

When Dwight heard Lin Yuan say this, he couldn't help but nod and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't ask clearly, I want to ask about the yield strength of steel." ”

Lin Yuan said with a smile: "It is necessary to reduce the content of harmful elements. ”

Jenningson hurriedly asked, "How to reduce the content of harmful elements?" ”

Lin Yuan said with a smile: "The most harmful is the sulfur element, when the sulfur content exceeds a certain limit, the steel is prone to cracks when rolling or forging, the sulfur element is generally doped in the iron ore and coke, it is difficult to remove them before entering the blast furnace, if you want to make high-quality steel, you must remove the sulfur element before the molten iron enters the steelmaking furnace, and the sulfur element is reduced by the method ......"

Speaking of this, Lin Yuan didn't say anything, he turned his head to look at Dwight and said with a smile: "Mr. Dwight must know more than me." Jenningson smiled and took out a deposit slip and said: "This is our deposit certificate from the British Empire HSBC Bank, a total of 200,000 pounds, equivalent to more than 1 million taels of silver in your country, if General Lin tells us the refining method of stainless steel, this 200,000 pounds, both hands will be served!" ”

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "What's the matter today, there are actually two wronged big heads who have been sent to the door, and they are so generous!" With this money, the following development and construction will be much more convenient! Lin Yuan pretended to be open-eyed and said, "Okay, okay, I'll say it!" ”

Lin Yuan said: "The sulfur element is mainly brought in by coke, so it is a good way to reduce the coke needed for ironmaking, but this road is very difficult to walk, we can only find a way in the process of smelting, we can know the way by the conservation of matter, the sulfur element will exist in the molten iron and slag, if we can let the slag absorb as much sulfur as possible, then we can make the sulfur element in the molten iron become less, and add more alkaline oxide in the slag, which is a good way." "But this is not enough to remove all the sulfur, so we need to refine the molten iron when it flows out of the blast furnace, for example, we add a certain amount of soda ash to the molten iron, which can remove 80% of the sulfur in the pig iron!"

Dwight said, "Your insights are good, but what you're saying is at the principle level, what we need is at the production level, can you give us a detailed process flow?" We want to be very specific, such as where in the blast furnace do the basic oxides in the slag absorb the sulphur? ”

Lin Yuan nodded and smiled: "It's good, no problem." As soon as they left, Lin Yuan contacted Liu Jinqiu, a metallurgical expert on the Beijing ship, who was at the steel plant in the Ryukyus at this time, and he listened to Lin Yuan's narration and said suspiciously: "Those two Englishmen are not stupid, right?" Although the desulfurization of molten iron is very important, it is not worth a million taels of silver! ”

Lin Yuan smiled: "I have been puzzled about this matter for a long time, and then I figured it out, they do have other plans, you are like this, give me a copy of the technical information as soon as possible, the specific requirements are like this......"

The next night, as soon as the investigation was over, the two Englishmen got into Lin Yuan's tent, Lin Yuan gave them the technical materials he had copied for a night, and they couldn't wait to look at it, only to see that Dwight's eyes were getting brighter and brighter, while Jenningson's eyes were getting more and more ugly! Lin Yuan thought to himself: "Why do these two people have completely different reactions? ”

The two of them finally finished reading the information, glanced at each other, and made an excuse to go out, Lin Yuan listened with his ears pricked up on the edge of the tent, Jenningsen seemed to be very excited, he said, "Are you crazy?" We all know the above process, and our coke has less sulfur, so we don't need to spend 200,000 yuan to buy this thing! ”

Dwight's voice was also anxious, and he said, "How is it not necessary! In addition to those crafts, there are more than we want! ”